IKHANA: WHY WE FAILED IN EQUATORIAL GUINEA

Former chief coach of Super Falcons, Kadiri Ikhana has shed light on why the senior women’s national team he led to the African Women’s Championship in Equatorial Guinea failed to retain the trophy and the reason why he resigned his appointment. He told RICHARD JIDEAKA that the host country's antics and absence of two key players frustrated his team from doing well…

How did you feel leading the Super Falcons to relinquish the AWC title without a fight in Equatorial Guinea?

Well, I felt very sad and disappointed that we failed to retain the cup as we planned to do from the beginning. A lot of factors actually affected the team from performing at its optimal best. To show how devastated I felt after we lost in the semi-final to South Africa, I took a decision to resign and which I did as soon as we returned to Nigeria.

Coach, were you forced to resign or you did that out of your own volition considering the fact that your contract said you should at least reach the semi- final of the championship?

But you know me very well that nobody can force me out. I resigned because I failed to meet the target I set for myself. My target was to win the trophy but having surprisingly lost in the semi-final, I just knew it was all over for me.

You mentioned that so many factors were responsible for the Super Falcons’ poor outing in anAfrican championships; can you divulge some of these factors?
 
Yes, one of them was that 10 days to our departure on a training tour of Ghana, the NFF technical department with the directive from the technical committee chairman released two of my key attackers to a foreign club without my consent. I protested this action which I regarded as a deliberate attempt to frustrate and weaken the team. I expressed my bitterness when I went to defend the list before the technical committee members but I was assured that the club would release the players for the competition which they never did. The players in question- Desire Oparanozie and Francisca Ordega, are by all standard players who could have turned things around for the team. When it became obvious that I would not have them for the championship, I had to quickly draft in some new players as replacements.

Another factor was the late arrival of foreign-based players to join the team. Five of the foreign-based players invited for the AWC were only able to join us three days to our departure to Ghana and the sixth player, Perpetua Nkwocha, joined us on the day of our departure to Ghana. This short period did not allow us to evaluate their fitness level; psychological and mental preparedness but having registered them based on their pedigree, we had to make do with them.

Could there be any other factor that led to your dismal outing at the AWC?


Of course, the major factor why we lost was the antics of the host and organizers. It was as if they had mapped out strategies to frustrate us and this began as soon as we landed at the Malabo airport on Thursday October 25. They made things difficult for us and easy for other teams. They succeeded because at the end, our players lost concentration and became frustrated. Some of them even fell sick and could not play some games. They made us stay for about five hours at the airport before we could board our flights to and from Malabo and Bata. They provided inadequate rooms for the team and some of us had to stay in different hotels. Can you imagine that for us to eat we had to move from one hotel to another three times in a day and none of these took nothing less than an hour. We were made to shuttle between Bata and Malabo. We traveled more than all other teams during the championship.

Back to your preparation for the championship, would you say it was adequate and that the NFF played their role very well?

To be fair to the federation, they gave us the best of preparation any team can ask of. The team lost because we fell to the antics of the hosts and despite all the efforts made by Dr. Sanusi Mohammed and others to lift the girls’ spirit, nothing came out of it.

What is the way forward for Nigerian women’s football?

The NFF should settle the feud in the women’s league and ensure that the league becomes competitive and attractive. Again, they should use the age grade teams for developmental competitions and not the ‘you must qualify’ idea that is ruining the progress of the senior team. I mean players must not be allowed to play any age grade competition twice and any player in the senior team must not be allowed to return to the junior team no matter how young she may be. I think, we still have what it takes to rule Africa again if the whole of next year is used to build a new team since there would be no competition next year. I also think that the so- called foreign based players should be made to join camp at least two weeks before any major competition or we forget about them. From my observation, it seems that they either do not play football regularly over there or that the standard of the league they play is too low.

Would you give female football another try if given the opportunity?

In my resignation letter, I thanked the NFF president for the opportunity given me to serve the country and I hope to serve again if they find me suitable for any job. So, I would be ready to coach the girls again because I was able to instill discipline in the team and I know I can do better than I did last time.
 

AGBIM: VENEZUELA WIN WILL BOOST OUR AFCON PREPARATION

Super Eagles reserve goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim has told IZUCHUKWU OKOSI that last Thursday’s international friendly game in USA was the beginning of good preparation ahead of the 2013 AFCON in South Africa

How would you describe the Super Eagles’ performance in the friendly match against Venezuela in Miami, USA last week?

It was not an easy game despite the result. The Venezuelan side has some experienced and gifted players so it was not easy at all to beat them. We also have very good players who are motivated to do well and fight for their places in the Nations Cup squad.

You did not play any part in the game in Miami, were you disappointed?

Well, I would have loved to play a part in that game because it was a friendly affair, but I have to respect the decision of the coach to leave me out. Being in the team was a privilege in the first place but I know that my time to play consistently in the national team will come.

There are plans by the Nigeria Football Federation to arrange more friendly games this time with African teams before the Nations Cup. How are the players looking forward to playing those games?

The friendly game against African sides will be fine because of the Africa Nations Cup coming up in less than two months in South Africa. The countries that have been mooted as our likely opponents are very strong sides and I believe that we will give a good account of ourselves in those games as usual.

The Nigeria Premier League season has not kicked- off yet, don’t you think it will affect the match fitness and invariably the chances of the home-based players to make the Nations Cup squad?

It is a worrisome development but the coaches know the abilities of the players in the Nigeria Premier League- especially those who have been part of the national team set-up. Hopefully, when the camping for the Nations Cup opens on December 17, everything will be sorted out before the end of the exercise.

The whole team celebrated the win over Venezuela in Miami after the game. What was the mood amongst the players and coaches like?

The win was a morale booster and it also means that the team is improving and can get better when the Nations Cup comes around.

How did Stephen Keshi motivate the team before the game?

He told us to prove that we merit a place in his team for the Nations Cup. He was happy that the likes of Shola Ameobi and Bright Dike opted to represent Nigeria. From all he has been saying to the players, he has confidence in our abilities. He respects our feelings and always inspire his players which is very important in the game of football.

The team will camp in Faro, Portugal ahead of the Nations Cup. Do you think weather factors will hinder your preparations for the Nations Cup?

The camping in Europe will not affect us rather it will help us, the home-based players especially. It will be winter in South Africa in January and playing Venezuela was like playing away from home.

The likes of Shola Ameobi and Bright Dike made their Super Eagles debuts against Venezuela. What impact would you say they made in the team?

Both players were excited to play for Nigeria and it showed in their performances. Dike plays in the MLS but despite that, you could see that he was happy to play for Nigeria. Ameobi is an experienced player and his qualities are needed in the team. If you have such players in your team, you know that you have a genuine chance to do well against your opponents. He was a source of inspiration to other players.

Sammy, Shola’s brother has decided to wait for a chance to play for England in future; do you think he should emulate his brother and play for Nigeria?

It would be nice to have both of them play for Nigeria because they are both gifted players.

Sammy was invited to the Flying Eagles camp in the past even though he eventually did not play for the team.
Well, it’s his decision to make. Let’s see if he would have a change of mind.

With the determination of other African Nations to win the Nations Cup, do you think the Eagles are ready for the threat of other teams?

The spirit amongst the players is very high and we want to win the Nations Cup. We will be ready for the challenges ahead surely.

You moved to Rangers FC of Enugu. How would you describe the new atmosphere?

Rangers are the pride of the eastern people, and I was warmly received when I got to the club. I could see that it was a team where you can develop as a player. It’s a friendly place to work and hopefully, I will do well with them.

Are you setting any personal target for the year 2013?

Of course, I do, every player does. I want to win the league with my new club, Rangers. It’s
been long since they won a title in the domestic scene and I want to be part of the team that will break that jinx.

Thank you for your time…

It’s always a pleasure to speak with you.

Manchester City's Champions League campaign is new top English flop

Roberto Mancini claimed he was not embarrassed after the defeat by Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday saw Manchester City crash out of the Champions League.

Roberto Mancini's Manchester City did not stand still in this Champions League campaign, they regressed. Three points, no wins, muted performances and an alarming lack of know-how marked a path to bottom place in Group D. Even Europa League football – the "prize" for finishing third of four teams – was beyond reach.

This goes down as the most dire English performance in the group stages of the continent's elite competition. The nadir of Blackburn Rovers in 1995-96, which featured the David Batty-Graeme Le Saux punch-up at Spartak Moscow, showed a final tally of four points and can now be replaced by City's humiliation.

A phase that threw up the glory-soaked night of cash-strapped Celtic beating Barcelona 2-1 thanks to a late winner from an 18-year-old debutant, Tony Watt, had the £1bn Sheikh Mansour project taught a lesson at every stop it limped into. City scored only seven times (two fewer than last year), lost 3-1 to a callow Ajax in Amsterdam, and ended a painful, six-game long capitulation by surrendering on Tuesday evening to a largely second-string Borussia Dortmund.

The injured David Silva and Gaël Clichy apart, plus the suspended Yaya Touré, the XI sent out by Mancini, who cannot stop rotating strikers, was his strongest. For Dortmund, Jürgen Klopp fielded only five of the team that taught City a lesson in the earlier, reverse match between the two, as the captain, Sebastian Kehl, Sven Bender and Mario Götze were injured and the star Polish trio of Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Robert Lewandowski were named only as substitutes.

Dietmar Hamann, the former City midfielder who won the 2005 Champions League with Liverpool, summed up the disbelief at the performance that sealed City's exit from European football this season. "The gulf looked very big," he told Sky Sports. "Borussia rested some of their top players. The players who came in for City all cost a lot of money. The Borussia players didn't. I saw one team that had the will to win and one that didn't. If I didn't know beforehand what their position in the group was I would have thought that Borussia had something to play for and City didn't."

As damning was the verdict of Ruud Gullit, a double European Cup winner with Milan: "The manager takes the responsibility when you win and when you lose. If the intention was to get out of playing in the Europa League then they did a great job. If their intention was to win to get in to the Europa League then they made a fool of themselves. It was dreadful. There was no team at all. I didn't see anybody getting mad or angry or even looking like they wanted to do it. It was such a bad performance. Even though they didn't want to play in the Europa League, at least they could have made an effort. At least do something.

"They bought a lot of players for their name. I don't think they bought players for other reasons. I don't see the reason they bought Maicon. Maybe someone can tell me that. They had some good players and they sold them."

In last season's Champions League bow City gathered 10 points, scored nine times and returned two victories to finish behind Napoli and Bayern Munich. Then, Mancini's mantra was that 10 points is usually enough to progress, and that lessons would be learned, the experience drawn on.

Yet the alarm again sounded as early as the end of this term's opener at Real Madrid. 87th and 90th minute goals from Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo turned a 2-1 win into a morale sapping loss for City. "Mancini said after one defeat that he knew what the problem was and he would fix it," Gullit added. "That's what he said. I have not seen that he has fixed it. I just see them playing worse and worse."

From Madrid, Mancini's men sleepwalked through the stage. Two weeks later, Mario Balotelli's late penalty salvaged a point at the Etihad after Dortmund's slick passing and clever technique took City apart. Then came the debacle at Ajax despite Samir Nasri giving City a 22nd-minute lead, when lax defending and foggy-minded attacking allowed Frank de Boer's band to win at a canter, 3-1. In the return, the Dutch champions were 2-0 up after only 17 minutes before goals from Touré and Sergio Agüero salvaged a point. That made it only one managed from the six on offer against the group's weakest team.

Ultimately, this return cost Mancini's gang the chance to retain hope of progressing into the final two matches as the Italian faced the indignity of having José Mourinho bring his side to the Etihad in late November with City virtually out and watch the man who may replace him one day oversee the 1-1 draw that finally killed any mathematical chance. Of this, Mourinho laughed and said: "If it was Real Madrid the press wouldn't let me return to Madrid."

At the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday Mancini claimed he was not embarrassed by City's failure. He added: "Dortmund went out in the group stage last season, and were fourth. But this season they can win it in my opinion. When you start and make mistakes, like we did in the first two or three games, you cannot recover."

Football's ruthlessness means Mancini will be lucky to get the chance to make it third time lucky next season.

Shared woes match Portsmouth and Coventry amid football and finance

Portsmouth's financial woes may be reaching an end but Coventry's stadium issues also offer a grim lesson.

The battle over Fratton Park is shortly to be resolved in court (1). The twisted history of Portsmouth's financial ills and, indeed, its ownership ills seem to be moving towards a denouement (the topics of the stadium which has become separated from its club in ownership terms, and the mixed blessing that a new stadium can bring, are ones that I have covered in previous postings (see postings passim). Certainly as a member of the Pompey Supporters Trust, and a strong advocate of fan ownership, I want the Trust to "win" the case (they are not a directly participating party, hence the quotation marks). The case for a much lower valuation is a strong one, and for once I'm optimistic that the result will, for once, go the right way. If it doesn't, it will almost certainly mean the liquidation of the club, and the fight to establish a resurrection club will begin in earnest no doubt.

Nearer to home, literally, as I live in work in Coventry, if not metaphorically, the issue of the ownership of the Ricoh is almost as prominent on my radar.

Its origins go back to the heady days when Coventry was enjoying a notably long and unbroken run in the top flight, dating back to 1967 and the managership of Jimmy Hill. Its then stadium at Highfield Road dated from 1899, and, with a post-Taylor capacity of approximately 23,500, it lacked any of the facilities that a Premier League stadium needed to compete from a business point of view. It was not a million miles from Fratton Park to be honest.

In 1997, under the Chairmanship of Bryan Richardson, grand plans were announced for an ultra-modern stadium to be built on a brown-field site on the northern edge of the city, close by Junction three of the M6 (and adjacent to the Coventry-Nuneaton railway line). Arena 2000, as it was originally to be called, was to be the envy of many a self-respecting Premier League, with a retractable roof and a removable pitch, making it ideal for other revenue-generating activities such as pop concerts. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, just about everything:

The brown-field site, which had been the site of Foleshill Gasworks, proved problematic. Contamination of the site required two years of remedial work to make it reusable (2).

The club was being operated unsustainably. By 2003 debts were at a level of £20m (3) and continued to rise (4) and rise (5).

On the pitch, Gordon Strachan failed in the battle to keep the club up in 2001.

In 2002 it was only possible for the building project to continue with the formation of a new joint company, Arena Coventry Limited (6), 50% owned by Coventry City Council and 50% by the Alan Edward Higgs Charity, a wealthy local charity for children which has a strong sports interest.

Sponsorship of the stadium by local car manufacturer Jaguar, itself under financial pressure, fell through as production of their cars in Coventry ceased (7).

To cut a long and tortuous story short, the stadium was built, but to a significantly lower specification than originally planned (capacity was reduced to 32,500), Ricoh took on the sponsorship, and Championship Coventry played their first game there in 2005. Not that this proved a particular turning point for the club. In 2007 a potentially club-saving takeover by American consortium Manhattan Sports Capital Partners fell through (8). Then, having come within twenty-five minutes of going into Administration, the club was acquired by venture capitalists SISU (9).

Although SISU planned to buy at least the 50% of the shares owned by the Alan Edward Higgs Charity, this has not happened, and the club continues to rent the stadium from Arena Coventry Limited. From the club's financial perspective, the stadium is thus a monthly liability rather than the major asset and revenue generator originally envisaged.

Relegation from the Championship to League 1 in 2011 exacerbated an already difficult situation. Attendances and revenues were hit. The agreed rent, reported to be £100,000 per month, became significantly unrealistic for a League 1 club to sustain. Again cutting a long story short, the owners and club have been unable to agree a compromise rent that is realistic, and the club, SISU that is, started a 'rent strike' in March last year (10). Obviously this is a situation that cannot run on indefinitely, and in the last few weeks matters have come to a head, with both sides apparently digging their heels in and maintaining collision course. On the one hand, Deputy Conservative leader John Blundell says that ACL may have to seek a winding-up order over the unpaid arrears (11), while on the other Coventry City Chief Executive Tim Fisher accuses Arena Coventry Limited of pulling out of talks (12). Whatever the rights and wrongs of the respective protagonists, some compromise needs to be reached, and rapidly.

As well as the two confrontational tales of Fratton Park and the Ricoh, there is a crumb of comfort on the stadium front at Stockport County's Edgeley Park (13) where a deal has been announced that will see the club running the stadium at a reduced rent and retaining the revenues from it. Let's hope there will positive news to report shortly from both Coventry and Portsmouth.

• This is an article from our Guardian Sport Network. To find out more about it click here.

• This article first appeared on John Beech's Football Management blog.

Roy Hodgson shows Oxford Union his style is as impressive as Psy's

The multilingual Roy Hodgson tries mixing it up with some hand signals during England's World Cup qualifier in Poland.

The Oxford Union was called a "shambles" in the university press last week for its botched handling of the visit of Psy, the South Korean singer. Apparently 1,300 people applied to see the "Korean superstar" but fewer than 400 were allowed in, with "media people" and the paparazzi taking up too much space in the chamber. Psy taught the gathered few the Gangnam Style dance that has been infecting the nation. It all sounds a little naff, but was probably more eagerly anticipated than Roy Hodgson's visit to the Union on Tuesday afternoon.

Hodgson's appearance was not mentioned in last week's edition of the Oxford Student newspaper. Space was allotted instead to a story about a crackdown on the "slob culture" in a college common room and a feature on where to avoid zombies if the dead rise in a forthcoming apocalypse. Two writers in the sport section debated the merits of the north London managers under the headline: "André Villas Bollocks Vs. What an Arsènehole". Where's Lord Justice Leveson when you need him?

With Union hacks dizzy from the visit of a Korean pop star and students either scratching around in their own filth or scouting for post-apocalyptic bunkers, the visit of the England manager must seem rather boring. Hodgson comes with little fanfare. Walking into the room, he could pass for an academic. He would fit in well here if he didn't wear such expensive suits.

Hodgson has his own history of academia. He taught PE in schools in south London before managing football teams professionally and even taught some French while playing in South Africa. The 65-year-old comes across like a benign arts teacher who is too soft to stand up to misbehaviour but a nice enough guy not to attract the wrath of troublemakers. He would be a good boss.

The Union librarian, Rajiv Dattani, introduces Hodgson with a speech that will do little to allay fears that students are overly dependent on Wikipedia. The man from the FA puts on a quick video and we all watch a highlights reel of Hodgson's best bits. We see his teams – Fulham, Liverpool and England, of course – score goals and then the camera cuts to pictures of the manager smiling on the touchline.

If the video does little for Hodgson's varied and illustrious career, the man himself is keen to put things right. Hodgson has managed 19 teams in eight countries and seems happiest when discussing his work outside England. His urbane and cultured approach to life and management seem to go down well with the students. He references the Joseph Heller novel Good As Gold while talking about expectations; he quotes Winston Churchill on the topic of favouritism; and, while discussing the transfer market, he draws the analogy between a player's price being what a club are willing to pay and a piece of art being valued at what the collector will spend.

Hodgson spends most of his half-hour talk taking the audience – "you future leaders of commerce and industry" – through his managerial principles. He admits that the concept of having a football philosophy came to him late in his career, only when he returned to manage in Sweden for the second time in 1983. Before being asked to speak in managerial conferences – "They became a big deal in the 1980s" – Hodgson says he hadn't really considered what type of manager he was, or what he believed about the game. He says he would be "appalled" if he were to look back on his old coaching sessions. He films training with England now, so no learning opportunity is lost.

Hodgson's management philosophy seems to be influenced by the writing of Dale Carnegie, the American self-improvement author who urged leaders to inspire their team by thinking positively. Hodgson says a few times that "the best way to improve people is through praise rather than criticism". He emphasises the importance of enthusiasm and energy, qualities he needed while managing Internazionale. The club's owner had told Hodgson that he would not have to learn Italian and could speak in French to an interpreter, who would pass on his instructions to the players. After a few weeks, Hodgson recognised that his dour translator was not conveying the message with enough gusto, so he learned to speak Italian himself.

Hodgson's flair for languages is astounding. He picked up Swedish in six months but never once used it to speak to his players. They preferred to speak in English, so his new linguistic skills were saved for dealing with the press, giving talks and socialising. He was particularly taken by the Swedes' ability to speak "the Queen's English" with no sign of a foreign accent. While managing the Switzerland national team he learned French, but this perceived favouritism angered the German-speaking media in the country. So he picked up some German and delivered a speech to the assembled journalists in their native tongue. Problem solved.

Hodgson's passion for his time abroad comes up time and time again. He left England aged 28 with a wife and young son, and didn't return again until he was nearly 50. The time away had "a profound effect on him". When beginning the question and answer session, Hodgson appeals for inquiries from people who want to learn about other countries, but, naturally enough, most people ask about England and its football clubs. He is proud of West Brom's progress; he was "pleased" when Adam Johnson left Manchester City for Sunderland "to get a game", as it was "difficult to assess him in the Manchester City reserves". And he speaks fondly of Michael Appleton, the Blackpool manager who is his former assistant at West Brom.

Hodgson deals with each question manfully, but he lights up when asked about the lack of English footballers playing abroad. "That's a good question," he says. "It's about money," he answers initially, before rolling off into a soliloquy on England's island mentality. He refrains from criticising his players, but his desire to see some of them to take more risks is plain. David Beckham is picked out for special praise for "chancing his arm" and moving to Real Madrid, Milan and LA Galaxy.

Hodgson winds things up with a few tips for life. He says to dream big, to keep things in perspective and to not fear failure. As he walks off to appreciative applause from the members of this old institution – founded in 1823 and with a WiFi password that references a 19th century prime minister – it's impossible not to think that this very un-English England manager would enjoy the frenzy caused by a Korean pop singer.

Brazil back at square one after replacing Mano Menezes with Scolari

Mano Menezes is a thoughtful coach who was improving with the young team he was moulding.

Timing, in football and in life, is everything. Just ask poor old Mano Menezes. The 50-year-old, who had (somewhat fortuitously) kept his job as Brazil coach in the wake of a shoddy 2011 Copa América campaign and again after a bitterly disappointing loss in the final of the Olympic football tournament, was relieved of his duties on 23 November – just weeks after the seleção produced the two most impressive performances of his reign.

In time, it will become clear just how thankless the task undertaken by Menezes really was. The inheritor of a side troubled by the twin terrors of age and underachievement, Menezes managed to inject some spark back into the seleção. He successfully integrated a new generation of players, ended the perceived selection bias towards those plying their trade in Europe, and got Brazil playing proactive football after years of stuttering under Dunga.

True, his stewardship was not without fault. Brazil's Copa América performances were as stodgy as the pitches they were played on, while it took an inordinate amount of time to find a central midfield combination that suited the progressive game he wished his side to play. But he has reason to be thoroughly disappointed at his dismissal, which comes just 18 months before the World Cup. Menezes's whole project was based on a four-year cycle, which seemed more than fair given the enormity of the job at hand. As it is, he has been deprived of the opportunity to sit his final exam, that by which his work could have been fairly judged.

His sacking, which was orchestrated by CBF president José Maria Marin (of whom more later) speaks again of the short-termism at the heart of Brazilian football (and of football per se, for that matter), and leaves his replacement, Luiz Felipe Scolari with two options, neither of which is particularly appealing: to build upon Menezes's work (in which case why fire Menezes himself?) or to rip it up and start again just when things are taking shape.

Of the three names initially linked to the job in the wake of Menezes's departure, Scolari seemed the least attractive option. The sultry Muricy Ramalho may have turned down the seleção in 2010, but his CV (three consecutive Brasileirão titles with São Paulo, another with Fluminense, a Copa Libertadores win with Santos) is hard to ignore. Tite, who guided Corinthians to their first ever Libertadores title this year, looked an even more likely candidate, particularly when the CBF announced that Menezes's successor would only be appointed in the new year – i.e. after the Timão's long-awaited Club World Cup campaign.

Another name was thrown into the mix by sports paper Lance!, who claimed that Pep Guardiola was interested in the job. The mouthwatering prospect of a tiki-taka takeover was rejected out of hand, however, highlighting the commonly-held (if increasingly outmoded) view that Brazil should never be coached by a foreigner. "I believe in Brazilian managers," scoffed Marin: "We've won five World Cups with our own coaches."

That reverence for the successes of the past reached its logical conclusion with Scolari's appointment on Wednesday. Felipão, of course, is one of the famous five; he was parachuted in to the Brazil job in 2001 and led the seleção to their fifth World Cup. That success, and the fact that Brazil have failed to replicate it in the decade since, ensures that Scolari has a significant and vocal constituency. Indeed, the pro-Felipão groundswell in the days following Menezes's dismissal was almost palpable, with assorted Brazil alumni (including national-treasure-turned-political-nodding-dog Romário) piping up in support of their man.

But public opinion isn't always right. If the last 10 years have been hard on the seleçao, they've been even harder on Scolari, whose trophy cabinet has been expanded to the fairly measly tune of one Uzbek title and one Brazilian Cup. A lengthy spell in charge of Portugal promised much but delivered little, while his last high-profile job, at Chelsea, lasted for all of seven months.

A return to his homeland hardly helped matters; while Scolari deserves credit for guiding Palmeiras to the Copa do Brasil earlier this year (a title that reaffirmed his reputation as cup specialist), his fingerprints are all over the ignominious relegation of the Verdão to Série B. One of Scolari's most notable managerial attributes – his ability to galvanise team spirit even in the face of criticism – was in scant supply in São Paulo, with his prickly personality creating rifts in the boardroom and in the dressing room. Tactically, too, his best days appeared to be behind him: his decision to use a three-man defence in 2002 was indicative of a coach willing to take brave, unexpected decisions; his Palmeiras side, by contrast, traded in clunky, percentage football.

All of this, apparently, was lost on the CBF, whose decision smacks of petty politicking. It appears that Marin, whose greatest hits include the not-so-subtle pocketing of a youth tournament winner's medal earlier this year, wanted to break up the de facto Corinthians old boys alliance that had control of seleção. Sanches, a close friend of former CBF president Ricardo Teixeira (the man Marin replaced), also found himself seeking new opportunities a couple of days after Menezes was sent packing, as Marin marked his territory. In this context, the appointment of Scolari – and of Carlos Alberto Parreira, another World Cup winner, as technical director – must be seen as populism, plain and simple.

Of course, good outcomes sometimes come from what appear to be bad decisions; history can make a fool of anyone. For now at least, though, Scolari's appointment looks misguided. In Menezes, Brazil had a thoughtful coach who was improving as his side did; a man who, despite some hiccups, successfully oversaw a much-needed generation change. Scolari may be the popular choice, but you can only go back to the future so many times.

Ricky Hatton can be ranked among the best of British boxers

Ricky Hatton was better than many at boxing and sidestepping the truth, until after the defeat by Vyacheslav Senchenko.

He may struggle to see it this way as he tends his kind, battered face but there is an unavoidable symmetry to Ricky Hatton's career deeply rooted in the history of boxing: nearly all his pain, physical and spiritual, arrived in a rush at the end.

That he was knocked out in three of his last five fights – finally, on Saturday night by Vyacheslav Senchenko – after an unblemished run of 43 wins and world titles at two weights placed him in exalted company. Very few world champions in a century and more of the fight game have avoided a similar fate, and the greatest seem to fall hardest, among them the towering triumvirate of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson and Joe Louis.

There is a simple reason they have to endure such a cruel farewell, as Hatton acknowledged in the small hours of Sunday. Half an hour earlier Senchenko, a tall competent Ukrainian and former world champion, had slipped a hook into his thinly protected midsection with all the clinical sweetness of Brutus slaying Caesar, and Hatton fell to his knees for the final count. That much we know. But why and how?

"Too many hard fights," Hatton mumbled through purpled lips, "burning the candle at both ends. It doesn't matter how hard you train, when that bell goes, a fighter just knows."

He knows but he cannot say. While there is breath, there is hope. Only when there is no more need for innocent lies – to himself, his opponent, those asking awkward questions – can a fighter embrace the truth. That is why they fall: they are magnificent deceivers. There are few sadder sights in sport than a boxer in the aftermath of defeat, physically and spiritually spent, trying to rationalise the reality that has just consumed him. Somehow Hatton always managed to find the words (perhaps because they came at us like a flurry of red leather) to convince us that, whatever the wounds on the outside screamed, inside he was OK, thanks very much. After all, had there not been far more good nights than bad?

There had. And we wanted to believe him. We believed him, against all better judgment, when, putting a cheeky grin on the reality, he told us he "should have fuckin' ducked" against Floyd Mayweather Jr in 2007. We believed him, less fulsomely, after the trauma of his two-round hell against Manny Pacquiao in 2009, when he promised us that he'd had enough, there was no more to give, that he could walk away. The sight of him sitting in the sun by the pool of his Las Vegas hotel, beer in hand, girlfriend by his side, only hours after being rendered unconscious at least held out the promise that he would welcome the release from his discipline and enjoy what he imagined might be a normal life.

It wasn't normal, of course: not what most of us would call normal. Always the most generous spirited of men, Hatton succumbed to the temptations of adulation, especially in the city that loved him most. In the bars of Manchester and beyond, he played as hard as he worked, drinking himself to the precipice of killing himself while strangers slapped him on the back or, in the depths of his ordeal, turned the other way, embarrassed. That hurt him more than any punch, which is why we found ourselves at ringside again, watching him fight for their approval one more time. It is a drug as powerful as heroin, boxing.

And how they wanted him to relive the past: Twenty thousand of them, singing with the full gusto of any of the 13 previous nights they'd packed the Manchester Arena for him.

Those promises and reassurances from the distant and recent past were an illusion, a necessary one, perhaps, for the function of the exercise, but loaded with danger. "That's what I did three years ago," he said. "I made excuses. There's always an excuse to find. But I needed to find out if I still had it. And I haven't. I needed to find out if I can still mix it at world level. And I can't." He paused, and allowed himself a final indulgence: "But I've no complaints. I can look in the mirror and be proud of myself and say I gave it my best."

He did that, unforgettably. He can be ranked among the best British boxers since the war, in the company of Lennox Lewis, Ken Buchanan, Joe Calzaghe and Nigel Benn, (who were there on Saturday night), Lloyd Honeyghan, John Conteh, Chris Eubank and Naseem Hamed. Only Henry Cooper on this side of the Irish Sea – and Barry McGuigan on the other – generated similar, unquestioning warmth among a hard-bitten constituency.

We should remember him for his triumphs – none better than seven years ago against Kostya Tszyu – however hard it is to obliterate the memory of that last wicked body shot and his sad drift to the canvas. From the moment a boxer pulls on gloves for the first time, he is looking for approval, and that insecurity haunts all of them until the day they quit. Hatton is no different. He was just better than most, at boxing, and, until the end, sidestepping the truth more adroitly than he did Mr Senchenko's concluding, merciful blow.